Of the list of interviews he had been more than happy to see completed, the one with Jett was quickly making his top ten. The magician had been intentionally difficult, attempting to goad Rico the entire time. Jett may have found the initial trick cute, while Rico only found it tiresome. The next disappearing act, involving his wristwatch, had jarred Rico.

It wasn’t so much the sleight of hand that had bothered him. After Stephanie’s warning about the handcuffs, Rico had been braced for a bit of trickery. The bifold trick had been impressive and Rico had found himself wondering just how the magician managed it. But the watch bit had deeply unsettled Rico. Even after having left the SEALs, Rico had prided himself on his attentiveness and devotion to detail. Slipping the cuffs without Rico having noticed was bad enough, but for the magician to have removed Rico’s wristwatch without alerting him required a skill which Rico had to respect and fear, or it meant Rico was slipping.

Worse yet, the aura around Jett had not dissipated the entire time Rico had been talking to him. The color had warped and shifted, seeming as if it were trying to inch its way to Rico as they talked. Rico hadn’t dared get close, almost afraid of letting it touch him.

If they had been in a different situation, Rico might have been less frustrated. Jett was attractive, both in charm and looks. The mussed style to his hair had looked casual, as if it naturally grew where it wanted and added to the boyish charm his smile hinted at. Rico supposed, outside of an official investigation, he might have even found Jett amusing. There was something to be said about someone who could be lighthearted and playful. Yet, the man was a suspect, and a suspect that fate was trying to say belonged with Rico.

To try to distract himself from his troubling thoughts, Rico hunted down the next name on his list. Another magician, Trevor Valentine, was also staying in the Hotel Opulence. He was almost twice Jett’s age and didn’t have the distinct spark to his personality that Jett had. Rico didn’t know if the dullness had come from the loss of Valentine’s fame or had been the cause of it. His quick, if acerbic, responses to the beginning line of questioning showed the aging magician as anything but slow.

“And you were where last night?” Rico asked as he doodled on the notepad.

Valentine huffed. “Where I always am lately, at the bar. Damn owners won’t let me anywhere near the stage with the peacock around.”

Thinking it seemed an appropriate description of Jett, Rico nodded. “You’re normally employed in a different hotel, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but they’ve got some new show they’ve rolled into town for the season. Something like those dancers who spin about in the air with ribbons and whatnot. They claim it’s art. I say it’s a bunch of fools who learned how to break their necks in more creative ways,” Trevor scoffed.

“You work with animals, correct?” Rico asked pointedly.

Trevor eyed him. “Well-trained animals. I’m not twirling about in the air, daring gravity or a wet spot on a cloth to send me crashing onto the stage.”

Considering some of the tricks Rico had seen magicians do in the past, he didn’t think the older man had much room to sneer at dangerous antics. He hadn’t been speaking to the aged magician for long but he could already tell it would be a short interview. While he wasn’t as frustrating to deal with as Jett, Valentine’s sharp tongue and bitter words were equally exhausting.

Hernandez decided to switch topics. “You were familiar with the victim?”

Trevor snorted derisively. “We all were familiar with him. Some of the younger magicians in town were livid at what Oliver was trying to do.”

“But you weren’t?”

Trevor gave a dry laugh. “I’ve been in this business for a very long time, Detective. A nosy producer who wants to make a show putting all our secrets on display isn’t going to bother me much. He wouldn’t be the first person to do it and he won’t be the last. So, no, I wasn’t very bothered by his nosiness, and no, I didn’t kill him.”

Rico would never understand why anyone felt the need to clarify they hadn’t committed the crime. In the few years he’d worked on the force, he had never had someone outright admit to anything, any more than he had overtly accused someone of a crime during an investigation. If Rico had any solid proof his interviews were with the perpetrator of the murders, he would have simply carted them off to answer his questions from the inside of the police station.

Valentine wasn’t finished. “And it’s not as if the worst thing to happen to magic was going to be a pompous TV producer. The internet has been the greatest threat to the secrets we keep in our line of work and has been ever since it became popular. You can get online and find practically anything you want, including the answers to more than a few tricks. Nowadays, the only way to stay on top is to be ahead of the curve, thinking beyond what people expect and doing it enough times to catch everyone’s attention before the whole thing is figured out. Had some little brat come sniffing around my show once, a blogger who debunked us apparently. Debunked, as if we were two-bit psychics, passing off a fog machine and a crystal ball as reality,” Valentine sneered.

Rico sighed, giving up the illusion of taking notes on his pad, which held nothing more than a bunch of doodles. He pocketed the book and eyed the grumpy older man carefully. In truth, Rico didn’t believe Valentine was capable of murder. While Trevor was in good shape for a man in his sixties, there was a slight tremble to his fingers. The little detail was enough to assure Rico the man’s days of working the stage were coming to a close. At his age, Valentine probably lacked the skill and dexterity to pull off such a feat.

Trevor hardly seemed to notice the absence of the notepad and continued with his rambling monologue. From the sound of the diatribe, Rico assumed he wasn’t supposed to talk, but to nod and listen.

The comment about psychics with their fake powers had unwittingly reminded Rico of the interview with Jett. Rico kept his face free of the grimace he could feel forming, choosing to nod at what he hoped was an appropriate moment in Trevor’s rambling. The image of the vibrant aura surrounding Jett as he smirked up at Rico was burned into the detective’s memory like the aftereffects of staring into a spotlight. The blazing hues of melded deep purple and crimson were all he could think about as he watched Trevor’s lips.

The auras only showed themselves around those who were fated to be soulmates. In the time since Rico had started seeing the auras, he had yet to see the auras form around two people who didn’t end up with each other in the long run. The colors only showed when they were in their soulmate’s immediate vicinity and blazed to life when they neared each other. Only when the couple touched did the golden shards spear through the aura, gradually becoming a permanent part of the auras with the deepening of the couple’s bond.

Rico had been alone with Jett during the interview. A fact he had been brutally aware of for the entire interview with the magician. As much as Rico had hoped someone else was close enough, he had made sure Stephanie cleared the area so he could speak with Jett. It didn’t help when the color around Jett seemed to intensify if Rico happened to step too close to Jett as he sat. None of the gold streaks had shown themselves, which should have been a comfort, but Rico had been too scared of them showing up to risk getting close enough to Jett to see if they would form.

While he wished he could tell himself he hadn’t seen the same colors around himself, he knew it didn’t matter. He supposed it was similar to how a person never understood what their voice really sounded like until they heard a recording of it. The difference was, there was no way to record himself to allow him to witness the aura around himself. Over the years, in his half-hearted attempts to date again, he had always known the men he’d dated would never last due to the absence of an aura around them.

Rico refused to believe someone like Jett would be destined to be his soulmate. Sure, the magician was attractive, in a physical sense, but Rico couldn’t picture anything more than casual, tense conversation with the man. Jett had been incapable of taking a conversation about a murder investigation seriously. Rico could no more picture himself tolerating Jett’s ego and irreverent attitude than he could imagine himself willingly giving the finger to his sergeant.

“And can you believe, not a single person in this city will hire me unless I show them every piece of paperwork I own for the animals. Hell, half the damn things couldn’t hurt someone if they tried, but no, I have to hand over every scrap I have, in triplicate, just to make the harpies back off,” Trevor continued, apparently unaware his audience had ceased paying him attention.

In some ways, he felt a little betrayed by what he had seen. Despite the small moments of disappointment when he saw nothing in the air around the men he had previously dated, there had been relief as well. Time might have helped ease the pain of losing Chip, but it had done nothing to absolve Rico of his guilt and fear. Rico still didn’t know why he had ended up being the sole survivor. Despite having tried to date again, his heart hadn’t been in it. In the back of his mind, he was always thinking about the only man he had ever truly loved.

The aura around Jett, with no one else around who Rico could finger as the source, was a threat. Rico knew he wasn’t necessarily happy, but neither was he miserable or lost as he drifted through his life. In some ways, he had adjusted to his loneliness, willing to cling to his memories because it felt right. So long as he never had to face being with another person in earnest, he could hold the memory of Chip close to him. The idea of finding someone fate lined up to be his soulmate felt like the biggest insult to Chip’s memory.

Rico’s chest tightened and he took a deep breath as slowly and quietly as he could. It had been a while since he’d last felt the ache he had lived with for months on end. To Rico, it didn’t matter what his sight had shown him. He had made his peace with being on his own for the rest of his life, and he had no intention of changing it.

Rico cleared his throat, interrupting whatever tangent Trevor had been running through. “I thank you for your time, Mr. Valentine, but I should return to my investigation. I hope to have the individual responsible caught as soon as possible.”

The other man nodded vigorously. “And I wish you the best of luck in the endeavor, Detective.”

Rico hesitated as he turned away, noticing something flashed across Trevor’s lined face. “Something on your mind, Mr. Valentine?”

“Well, it’s just—there is one person I know who is particularly protective of their secrets. I’m not quite sure what about his act makes it so special he feels the need to be so harsh, perhaps it’s the fame. If you ask me, someone like that might just be willing to kill to keep their secret,” Trevor told him carefully.

“And who would this be?” Rico asked, thinking he already knew the answer to the question.

Trevor snorted, the corner of his mouth curling down. “Jett Richards.”